What You Need To Know:

• Zeitman’s Grocery is located in downtown Bryan and has been open since 2021.

• Zeitman’s deli and bakery are among the only local options in the area.

• Their sandwiches are packed with flavor and are huge.

• This is among one of the best stores in downtown Bryan, and they’re going to grow through good word of mouth.

After living in Bryan/College Station for over a year, I noticed something. There is a lack of restaurants that sell great sandwiches. Sure, there are the typical chain restaurants, Subway and Jimmy John’s coming to mind, but no local places stand out. However, going through downtown Bryan the other day, something caught my eye. Zeitman’s Grocery, which opened in November 2021, also has a deli and bakery in the grocery store. Now, it’s very hard to pass up a deliciously stacked sandwich with a homemade chocolate chip cookie. Combine this deliciousness with an affordable, college student-friendly price, is Zeitman’s Grocery the best local deli in the BCS area?

Walking into this establishment, you are greeted by a small little seating area next to the cash register. It might seem like a small number of seats, but there is seating outside if the day is pretty enough to enjoy. In keeping with the grocery store setting, there are plenty of cold bottled drinks to choose from rather than a soft drink machine. Going into the back of the store will lead to the deli along with some other grocery items from local vendors. 

The menu is small, but it offers a lot of variety. There are five breakfast sandwiches and five lunch sandwiches. There are also many different types of bread to choose from as well. White, wheat, hoagie, rye, bagel, etc. There are also fresh meats that are available for purchase to use at home.

Wanting to keep it simple for the purposes of review, I ordered a turkey and provolone cheese with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I also chose toasted white bread. My professor and owner of the newspaper tagged along and got their Italian sandwich on the hoagie. We both got homemade cookies from the bakery to try them out as well. My combo meal, minus the drink, was only $7.50. That price point itself is a win. It’s so hard to find a quality meal that is cheap anywhere these days.

Before sitting down, I couldn’t help but notice how weighty the sandwiches felt before I took them out of the paper. Both the turkey and the Italian felt as if they were five pounds each. After opening them, they were absolutely stacked with meat. It was hard to find a place to bite since every corner looked ever so delicious. After taking that first bite, my mouth was inundated with the taste of warm melted cheese and perfected toasted bread. Everyone worked together in harmony for great flavor. The sandwich took longer for me to eat than a Subway sandwich because of how stacked of toppings it was. I have nothing negative to say about this sandwich. I want to go back right now the more that I talk about it. Jonathan loved his sandwich. He said that “it was the best Italian sandwich that I have ever had”. I can’t argue with praise that high, and his sandwich looked scrumptious. 

I have to give a paragraph dedicated to the bakery items. I’ve only tried the cookies so far, but having everything homemade and ready to sell is something that can only be found in a local grocery. The chocolate chip cookie was soft and warm, and I had to eat the whole thing because it tasted so good. It was also fairly large, so my sweet tooth was satisfied. It tasted of pure homemade goodness, and I think most people can get an idea of what that means.

Zeitman’s Grocery is a local business that will receive good word of mouth from the community. It’s still a relatively new business in downtown Bryan, but the room to grow is infinite. The city needed something like this. A deli is a great place to get lunch. A bakery is somewhere people can go to get delicious treats. A grocery store downtown is also great for the people who live in the apartment complexes there. I hope that my words and pictures have enticed anyone reading this to try it. Supporting local businesses is important nowadays. And with great products and sandwiches, it’s hard not to.